African Green Leafy Vegetables Health Benefits Beyond Nutrition

ABSTRACT

African green leafy vegetables (ALVs) are rich sources of nutrients and health-promoting bioactive metabolites that possess antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anticancer properties that will assist in reducing the development of noncommunicable diseases. Irrespective of their reported health-promoting properties, ALVs face challenges of their use in food systems particularly the mainstream markets/urban consumers due to poor insights and lack of knowledge on their health benefits. Therefore, the review aims at providing information that promotes increased utilization and consumption of ALVs as not only a source of nutrients but antioxidants and other beneficial bioactive components using cellular models.

KEYWORDS:

• African green leafy vegetables
• phenolic compounds
• antioxidant
• anti-cancer
• anti-inflammatory activity

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Johannesburg.